Saudi national accused of bugging OpenAI conference room

Summarised from CNBC's report · Updated 19 Oct, 07:31 · Archive

A Saudi national has been charged with planting a recording device in an OpenAI executive conference room in San Francisco.

Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi national employed as an engineer at OpenAI, has been charged with planting a recording device in a sensitive executive conference room at the company's San Francisco headquarters. Prosecutors revealed in a court filing on Sunday that Alfozan was in frequent WhatsApp communications with a member of the Saudi Royal Family throughout 2025 and 2026, communicating with the royal as recently as 5 October, four days before his arrest.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco, the Saudi royal told Alfozan that an artificial intelligence initiative was being launched in Saudi Arabia and wanted him to join it. In May 2026, the royal sent him a message saying 'Saudi needs you more then the US', to which Alfozan responded '100', indicating agreement. The royal repeatedly tried to recruit Alfozan and asked when he planned to leave OpenAI. Alfozan said he would not leave until his stock vested.

Prosecutors did not identify the Saudi royal in their filing or state that the royal directed Alfozan to install the recording device or steal information from OpenAI. Alfozan, who lives near San Francisco airport, is a venture partner at Raed Ventures, a Saudi venture capital firm.

Read the report

• OpenAI bugging suspect WhatsApp'ed Saudi royal days before arrest, feds revealSaudi national Abdulrahman Alfozan is accused of planting a recording device in an executive conference room at OpenAI headquarters in San Francisco.CNBC · 19 Oct, 07:06

In this story: Abdulrahman Alfozan · OpenAI · San Francisco · Saudi Arabia · Raed Ventures · U.S. Attorney's Office

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